The iPhone model set to be announced today will indeed have a fingerprint sensor, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal late Monday night. The sensor will be used to unlock the phone in lieu of a password, passcode, or the facial-recognition features used in some Android phones.

This iPhone would be far from the first phone to integrate fingerprint-scanning technology; the Motorola Atrix 4G released over two-and-a-half years ago featured such a sensor on its sleep/power button. The WSJ states that Motorola stopped pursuing the technology because of customer complaints over functionality.

The use of Apple’s passcode lock screen has become so ubiquitous, especially after the BYOD surge for business users, that it makes sense to streamline this security gate (personal pet peeve: it seems every time I type four digits into the lock screen, it only captures three of them. Every time). The WSJ also suggests the fingerprint sensor use could be broadened to areas like authorizing payments for a connected bank account or credit card.

Apple’s announcement event for the new iPhone and iOS 7 is set to commence at 10am PT/1pm ET. Keep both eyes on our liveblog with Senior Product Specialist Andrew Cunningham for up-to-the-minute information.

Update: An alleged photo of the new iPhone's user guide has been uncovered by Nowhereelse.fr (by way of MacRumors) referring to the former home button as the Touch ID sensor. The button lacks the graphical rounded square that has adorned it on past versions of the iPhone.

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Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston